Saturday, December 26, 2009

Me and Orson Welles (2008)

Jack, Amy, and I enjoyed this based-on-a-true-story tale, about the famed director's Broadway production of Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, taking place at the time Amy's grandmother/my mother was a freshman in college, autumn 1937. Fabulous but realistic costumes, sets, and motorcars decorate the mostly sepia cinematography by Dick Pope, who shot the lush period pieces The Illusionist (2006) and Topsy-Turvy (1999), as well as many of Mike Leigh's movies, including the dark 1950's Vera Drake (2004) and the brightly-colored Happy-Go-Lucky. Director Richard Linklater was first known for his quirky, independent work (Slacker (1991), Dazed and Confused (1993), Before Sunrise (1995) and Before Sunset (2004)), then his rotoscoped animated features Waking Life (2001) and A Scanner Darkly (2006), as well as his more commercial Jack Black vehicle, School of Rock (2003), all contemporary, so this is new for him. Also new for him is working from a script that is not his own. Vincent and Holly Gent Palmo have no other writing credits besides adapting Robert Kaplow's historical novel for this movie (before this they worked in production offices and sets, occasionally for Linklater).

I asked Amy what she thought of Zac Efron's other work. She replied that she was "mad" that she paid money to see 17 Again (2009) and "he did what was needed" in High School Musical (2006) and Hairspray (2007). In this one, again, he did what was needed. He's a cute boy with lovely blue eyes, but I didn't care about his character, the "me" in the title. Perhaps that's why we liked it rather than loved it. The rest of the cast, though--that's another story. Contrasted with 22 year old Efron's dozens of credits, 36 year old Christian McKay is just beginning his career, and his dynamic portrayal of the mercurial Welles is turning heads and winning awards and nominations here and in his native England. Claire Danes (TV's My So-Called Life, Baz Luhrmann's Romeo + Juliet (1996), Shopgirl (2005), written by and starring Steve Martin) plays her usual beautiful girl who is so down-to-earth she doesn't know or care how lovely she is, and gets top billing with McKay and Efron. The supporting cast, Ben Chaplin (worked with Danes in Stage Beauty (2004), and has been in many dramas, but I so liked him in The Truth About Cats & Dogs (1996)) as George Coulouris/Marc Antony, Zoe Kazan (I wrote about her relatives because she had a pivotal part in Revolutionary Road) as Gretta, Eddie Marsan (won British Independent Film Awards for Vera Drake and Happy-Go-Lucky, and has been in many other first class movies, e.g. Gangs of New York (2002), 21 Grams (2003)) as John Houseman, Kelly Reilly (the wonderful L'auberge espagnole (2002) and Mrs. Henderson Presents (2005)) as Muriel Brassler/Portia, and James Tupper (all 36 episodes of Men in Trees and a few of Samantha Who?) as Joseph Cotten/Publius, are all essential in this ensemble. There's a reference to The Third Man (1949), which starred Cotten, when a cigarette glows in the shadows towards the end (of the movie and the cigarette).

Most of the movie was shot across the pond, with the Gaeity Theatre on the Isle of Man sitting in for the 1937 Mercury Theatre in New York, and other English locations playing old NYC. A nice regular length holiday entertainment that you can enjoy with your family of all ages (as long as you're not forcing them to go), this has music of the 1930s in original and cover versions.

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